Successful treatment of cerebral hemorrhage using computed tomography angiography in a patient with left-ventricular-assist device.

Cerebral hemorrhage is one of the common complications associated with left-ventricular-assist device (LVAD) treatment and leads to a high mortality rate because of excessive bleeding due to frequently unknown causes. Cerebral angiography is used to diagnose cerebrovascular events and is well recognized as being very useful for this purpose. We performed a cerebral angiography for a patient with an LVAD who developed cerebral hemorrhage, and the hemorrhagic source was clearly identified. The patient underwent successful neurosurgical treatment, which was followed by heart transplantation.